Shabu Zen — Restaurant in Boston

I have been to this place numerous times with friends. Most of them have been excellent. When I finally decide to invite the whole family to go there, things don't go well to my frustration. Our waiter is assertive but rude, refuses to bring more green onion and garlic?!!? saying we have to finish what we had before. We had a party of 5 adults and a kid, he brought 1 set of spices to mix. Like, is it really necessary to explain why we need one right away? But oh well.. go figure. Also in that night, they were very crowded. And for the first time no one felt satisfied with the amount of food. We all left the place hungry.

Now the really annoying thing is that mid dinner, someone decides to play loud night club music. Like Tecno or something. There was a speaker on the ceiling almost on top of our table. Are you kidding me? It was so loud we couldn't hear each other at the table!!! And who the hell thinks that it is a good idea to listen to very intense music while you are eating? It just stressed me out!!! Instead of relaxing and enjoying I felt I needed to rush because of the frenetic beat. If I wanted night club music I would go to a nightclub nearby!

I've got so mad that I went ask for them to at least lower it. Which they did,...

Average hot pot place with good toppings in small portions.

My friends and I initially came in looking for a Japanese shabu shabu, but it seemed like the hot pots here were closer to Chinese ones. The default dipping sauces on the table were also for Chinese hot pots, so we ended up ordering a mix of the tonkatsu broth and the Mongolian spicy broth. Even the tonkatsu broth was slightly different from the ones I’ve had in Tokyo, but both were good nonetheless.

For the toppings, we got the prime meat combo, seafood platter, and the vegetable delight. The quality of the meats was superb as advertised, but the portion was too small to share between the three of us. The seafood platter was slightly better, but without the vegetables, we would’ve left the restaurant with an empty stomach. Given the price, we were hoping for better portions but ended up trying to fill our stomachs with extra vegetables that came out with the seafood and the meat combo.

Since Chinatown has several hot pot places with better deals, I would recommend going to those places if you’re not specifically looking for the tonkatsu broth. Shabu zen may offer better alternative to Japanese shabu, but overall it won’t be worth...

The food is good but the service is bad i waited 20+ mins for the rest of my food to arrive, but i had to ask for it to get it and it was a table of 2. The story goes like this, i order 2 vegetarian delight a table for 2, i wait 1min for the noodles and seasoning to come which was good, but after that i waited 20+ min for the vegetables to come so it can be cooked. I had to ask the waiter for the rest of my food for them to bring it, the guy who took our order avoid our table and ran off some where which was sketchy, so someone else had to bring the rest of our food to go with the noodles. i ask for water with my order and never receive it only untill i ask them again... the vibe in there seem shady and sneaky behind the scene, it just dont feel right and welcome, almost as if we were not welcomed...would not go back there again! Something dont feel right, if you spend less time paying attention to the food and more to your surrounding you might notice it too. I think they were doing all this cause we were uncommon black people in there restaurant. At the end they did not give me back my changes, i did'nt blow up or confront them cause its cool. I wont be going back...